Remembering Sunday
by KiwiBlossom
Summary: AU One too many sake shots, some playful banter, a hotel room, and a black lace dress lead to a night that help Neji and Tenten re-evaluate their friendship and goals in life. NejixTen One-shot


Remembering Sunday

I do not own Naruto or the song 'Remembering Sunday' by All Time Low.

All rights reserved.

**Authoress' Note: So, inspiration came from the song 'Remembering Sunday' by All Time Low as mentioned in the disclaimer. I'd like to point out that this is MY interpretation of this song not the actual meaning. There's lots of speculation about its meaning and this is just one of my takes on it.**

**There are NO LYRICS in this story so no one can get all pissy and report me again (Nothing has been done about that, by the way. I have a feeling that nothing ever _will_ be done actually.). **

**Enjoi!**

-Remembering Sunday-

By KiwiBlossom

The first thing Neji Hyuuga noticed when he woke up was that he wasn't wearing pants. The second thing was that the spot next to him that he was sure was occupied last night was now empty. It was stone cold, meaning the person had to have left a few hours ago. He looked at the clock – 9:32. Okay, not that late. So who was he with that would bolt so soon?

Neji screwed up his face in thought, sitting in the darkness of his room, trying desperately to remember who he'd spent a supposedly amazing night with. Everything was too fuzzy at the moment, though, and it hurt to try and think. Was this what it felt like to be so severely hungover?

He got his answer when a sudden wave of nausea swept over him. He rushed to the bathroom to vomit and cough up a lung before dragging himself to the vanity to wash out his mouth. As he glared at his reflection, something caught his eye.

Taped all over the over-sized mirror were dozens of Polaroids. Most of them were of the regular circle of friends, smiling reluctantly while alternating between Kiba's or Naruto's head being jammed in the corner at an odd angle.

Plucking one of the Polaroids off the mirror and squinting at it, Neji noticed he and Tenten crammed at a table in the background of one of Naruto's pictures. Tenten was smiling sheepishly up at the camera where as he scowled directly at it. He took note that he had quite a collection of sake shots collected around him. Tenten only had a bottle of beer that wasn't even half finished. For some reason, this worried him.

Despite his tendency to steer clear of drinking in general, Neji had an amazingly high alcohol tolerance. He knew Tenten did as well and wasn't as opposed to drinking as he was. So why was she only having a light beer?

Last night was Grad, that much he remembered. That was why everyone was out celebrating. Lee, Tenten, Temari, Kankurou and himself had all survived college with the rest of the bunch not far behind. One more year and everyone would be out.

Neji squished his eyebrows together in an effort to recall what he could about last night again. This time, although it hurt no less, a few scenes flashed by. Tenten smiling gently at him as he swayed a little in his seat. The girls on the dance floor shaking their hips and letting out loud laughs. Tenten's signature buns tumbling down, her long, beautiful chocolate brown hair brushing softly against his bare chest–

What? No. That can't be right. He and Tenten had never... They would never do something like that. They were friends, that was all. That's what they told people repeatedly throughout middle school, high school, college. People had constantly told them what a perfect couple they would make but they would just grin up at each other like they shared some special secret and say the same thing they told everyone...

"That's very kind of you to say, but we're just friends," he would say.

Then she'd finish with, "Best friends," a wink, and they'd link arms, strolling away, leaving the question-er very confused. That was how it always went – how it always would go.

The Hyuuga gazed down at the picture in his hand. She'd looked so stunning that night – dressed all in black, a strapless gown that had just a touch of shimmer to it and an elegant bit of lace at the bust line. She'd looked tasteful and sophisticated as opposed to the gaudy slut-fest the majority of the rest of the graduating class had been. College was supposed to class you up but in all reality, it was just an opportunity for spoiled little rich girls to get fake breasts and straighter noses to flaunt around in clubs.

Neji attempted to focus on rearranging whatever happened last night for a third time while he pulled on his black slacks and buttoned up his matching shirt, leaving the top few buttons undone for a more casual look. Rolling up his sleeves, a few more scenes pieced themselves together:

Naruto and Kiba running around with this old camera, the flash going off over and over again. Naruto slow-dancing with his cousin under the disco-ball while Kiba stared on, jealous. Then Ino taking his hand with a questioning smile and leading him to the dance floor. Shikamaru and Temari pairing off to kiss under the skylight with the moon radiating its light down on them. Everyone seemed to have a partner except for himself and the bun-haired girl sitting next to him.

"There really is nothing more depressing than coming to your own graduation without a date, huh?" she said to him with a playful beam.

"Ouch, don't mean to hurt my feelings, Tenten," he responded with the same playful ease. She was the only one he could be so vulnerable with.

"As I recall, you have a date," she replied smugly, shooting a glance at a table where Neji's less-than-slightly tipsy date was trying with much determination to stay upright on her chair. He sighed shamefully and shook his head at his 'date.'

"It was a mistake to bring her."

Tenten snorted before saying, "It was a mistake dating her at all, Neji, and you know that. Screwing some skank is not very becoming of you."

He flinched a bit at her crude choice of words. "I'm not sleeping with her. You know that."

"Do I?" she challenged. "Because I'm not so sure of you anymore. This place changed you so much."

It had been like that for awhile, he remembered now. She'd say something that seemed to have a double-meaning but he ignored it for the most part because it was Tenten and she was just playing. But when she said this, it struck a nerve.

"What do you mean? I'm no different than I was when I started."

She regarded him with such a great look of pity that he almost questioned himself. "How can you honestly say that?" she asked.

"It's the truth."

She laughed almost coldly. "Oh, bull shit, Neji! If you can't man up and admit that you changed I don't know how you'll survive in life. I'm calling you out on this so you better take a close look at yourself before you try denying me again."

And, at the time, he had taken a close look at himself. To him, he didn't seem that different. Maybe it was her that had changed?

"I haven't changed, Tenten."

She sighed, very close to comically. "Fine, _I _will explain to you how you've changed." She started counting things off on her fingers. "First of all, freshman-Neji never would have even given that girl the time of day, let alone brought her to such an important event as this. Freshman-Neji also wouldn't have whored his way around the past two and a half years just to say he did it. He also wouldn't have drank this much and–"

Neji snapped his eyes open. He'd kissed her. That's what cut her off. He'd planted his lips on hers, and it had only taken her a moment to respond.

Too frazzled to make another attempt at going through last night's events, Neji collected his belongings – including the Polaroids – and exited the room to go check out. Once at the receptionist's desk, he paid for the room. But before he could leave, he leaned over the desk to talk quietly to the clerk.

"Could you... could you tell me if I was here last night with anyone?" he managed.

The receptionist, who was on the older side with graying ginger hair and quirky glasses, gave him a coy look before responding. "Oh, I doubt you could forget who the little number you came stumbling in with was last night was. Cute lil' tease, I bet you, eh?" She winked at him to emphasize her point.

Neji relaxed slightly. She said she was a tease. That meant he could have came to the hotel with his date last night. What was her name again? Oh, whatever it didn't matter. He wouldn't talk to her again after this.

"Was she blonde? About 5' 8" wearing a short red dress that showed off her legs...?" he asked.

The red-head laughed, throwing her head back. "You kidding? Nah, this girl was brunette, wearing this gorgeous, lace strapless gown. Looked like she'd just come from a wedding or something."

His stomach sank. "Like a graduation?"

"Yeah!" she cried out. "Exactly that."

Feeling a touch hollow inside, he thanked her and left a hefty tip before setting out to find Tenten. Tenten had been wearing a strapless gown; Tenten was a brunette; Tenten had just graduated with him. Could it have been her? Could that stupid kiss led to more than he'd meant? He had to find out and find out now.

-x-X-x-

Tenten folded the last few things in her closet and placed them delicately into her suitcase. She'd gotten a phone call that morning from her mom, telling her that the job she had applied for in Los Angeles had opened up. She was going to go work with a production company that was creating a new show that was centered around ancient weapons. Her expertise in the area was supposed to help them with the accuracy of their sources. She was excited, of course, but LA was a long way from Japan. What if she never saw anyone from Tokyo again? She couldn't stand the thought. Especially considering she'd be leaving some unfinished business behind...

_Bzz! Bzz! _Someone buzzed her number repeatedly, almost agitatedly. She ran to the box near her door to talk to whoever was in such a rush.

"Hello?" she said once she got to her door.

"_Tenten?_" a voice on the other end guessed. "_Tenten, is that you? God, the reception in these things is awful. You should move somewhere better than this dump._"

Tenten inhaled sharply. She hadn't expected him to show up the same day. She thought she'd have a little time to prepare herself for the confrontation but she her time was up, she guessed.

"Y-yeah, it's me," she replied shakily. "What do you want, Neji?"

There was silence, then, "_Tenten, let me up._"

"Why?"

"_Just do it._"

She did as she was told, despite thinking better of it. When he knocked on her door, she was prepared and opened it with what she hoped looked like an air of sophistication.

"Hey– " she started but was cut off.

"What do you mean, 'what do I want?'" he exploded.

"I said what I mean."

He glared at her. "Don't be cheeky right now, Tenten, I'm pissed and a bit hungover. Do you really want to deal with that right now?"

'_I already am,'_ she thought to herself but didn't say anything.

"What the hell happened last night?" he demanded.

"Well..."

She thought back to the other night. What _had _happened? Some really unexpected things. Some things she wasn't entirely proud of. After that kiss, everything had fallen apart. No, 'fallen' wasn't the right word. Maybe everything had been put back into place? Tenten didn't know. All she did know was that last night was not any one night stand.

"Well what?" he snapped.

"We kind of..." she began nervously, "we kind of did it."

"It?" he fired back. "What is 'it'?"

"You know," she hinted, "_it_."

"Tenten," he warned.

"Okay, fine!" she caved. "We had sex. Happy? Meaningless, demeaning sex." Fidgeting uncomfortably, she looked away from him and out the window. How was he going to react?

She felt the weight shift as Neji sat down next to her. "Sex?" he finally croaked. She nodded shamefully.

"But...why?"

She shook her head sadly. "I don't know. You were drunk; I was drunk, we weren't thinking clearly. It just sort of happened."

He didn't say anything for a long time, and they simply sat facing away from each other for the duration of the silence. Maybe Tenten shouldn't have told him. She could have lied and told him that he had passed out so she'd rented him a room and left him there to sleep. He probably wouldn't have bought it if he wasn't so clearly hungover. Then, when he was sober and the memories came flooding back, they could have had this conversation over the phone because Tenten would be all the way in America by then.

"That can't be right," he said after the long beats of silence. She peeked at him out of the corner of her eye.

"What isn't right?"

"You weren't drunk," he clarified. "I have pictures to prove it." He started pulling out a stack of Polaroids which he then showed her, pointing specifically to one of her sitting with her beer and him with his collection of empty shot glasses.

"You have an equally high alcohol tolerance as I do, Tenten. There is no way that one beer could have gotten you wasted."

She glanced awkwardly away from him again. Truth was, she _had _been drunk; she'd gone on a date before the after-party with an old friend from her childhood days. They'd done a few shots then he had driven her to the hall where the party was being held. She'd composed herself in the washroom and promised not to drink any hard liquor. Two beers had been enough to get her smashed that night, apparently, though.

Tenten explained this all to Neji but he wasn't having it. "No. That can't be true. You used me. You used me just to make a point," he said, striding quickly towards the exit.

"Neji," she called after him, running to catch up. She stopped in the hall with him barely even turned enough to acknowledge her presence. "That _is _what happened. I didn't have a point to prove or anything. It was an accident."

That was the wrong thing to say, though, as it angered him even more. "So now I'm an accident?"

"No! I mean, we were both not in our right minds at the time and we..." she trailed off helplessly. "I'm sorry?"

Glaring coldly at his former best friend, Neji turned his back on Tenten and stormed out, leaving her to cry quietly to herself as she packed the rest of her bags.

-x-X-x-

_One month later_

"What do you mean she's gone?" Neji snapped at his cousin.

Hinata fiddled nervously with her fingers while mumbling, "She got a job in LA; She flew out a couple weeks ago..."

"_Los Angeles?_" he demanded. "Why would she go there?"

"I told you, she secured a job," she tried once more but he refused to hear it.

"How could she just leave? After everything..."

"T-to be fair, Neji, you weren't exactly the best companion to her," Hinata said quietly, peering cautiously at her cousin to gauge his reaction.

He whipped around. "Excuse me?"

Although Hinata's confidence had increased ten-fold since her childhood, her cousin had always scared her, especially when he was in a temper. He had this aura about him that threatened to hurt you no matter what you said or did. Suffice to say, it was terrifying.

Despite knowing all of this, she plucked up the courage to continue. "You were very rude to her, I heard, the day she left."

"Rude?" he snapped. "_Rude? _How could I not be? She _slept _with me!"

"Technically you slept _together_..."

"What?"

Frantically twiddling her fingers and staring determinedly at them she twitched out, "Well, you know, you guys were both really drunk and I saw you go off and get a hotel room so we all just kind of _assumed..."_

"You _assumed_ we had sex?" he roared, now quite furious.

"Oh, come on, Neji!" she cried. "How could we not? The sexual tension between you two is ridiculous. Everyone could sense it except you. Even Tenten knew that you weren't just friends!"

Neji's head spun and he staggered dangerously towards Hinata. The indigo-haired girl flinched instinctively away, worried for a second he might hit her. Instead, he grabbed hold of an end table to steady himself and shakily asked for his former best friend's phone number.

Confused, Hinata began to ask why but was silenced by the older boy's glare. She hastily scribbled down the number on a scrap piece of paper and handed it to him, secretly praying that her cousin was going to phone to work things out with Tenten instead of get into a screaming match.

"Are you going to phone her now?" she questioned, whether to warn her over-seas friend or to find out when she could eavesdrop, she wasn't entirely sure.

"Yes," he replied stiffly before striding out of the room. Hinata waited a full minute before trailing after him, dialing on her phone to tell Ino who would no doubt tell everyone. There was no way that they would want to miss this. Sure, it was wrong to listen in on private conversations but in this case, Hinata was going to have to make an exception.

-x-X-x-

In the privacy of his room, Neji carefully dialed Tenten's new phone number. He was nervous, despite himself and couldn't stop his foot from twitching spastically while he anxiously listened to the phone ring. Once... twice... three times...

"_Hello?_"

He inhaled sharply but didn't say anything.

"_Hello? Is anyone there?_"

Swallowing the lump that had magically formed in his throat, Neji croaked out, "Tenten?"

She was quiet on the other line. Finally, "_Neji, is that you?_"

He nodded, then realized she obviously couldn't see it and said, "Uh, yes, it is."

There was a tense silence from her and Neji thought for one terrified minute that she was going to hang up on him. He heard a loud whoosh of hair from the other end before she said, "_Nice to hear from you._"

Well. That definitely wasn't what he was expecting. "Really?"

"_Yeah. I thought you wouldn't ever talk to me again._"

"Why would you think that?"

He could almost instantly feel her irritation when she spoke next. "_What do you mean _why_? You were so pissed the last time I saw you._"

"Tenten, we... well, you know what we did. Didn't I have a right to be a bit angry?" he protested.

"_Of course you did, Neji, but you overreacted-"_

He opened his mouth to defend himself but she plowed through, not giving him the chance. "-_and don't even try to interrupt me, Neji Hyuuga. You really flipped your shit back then and completely freaked out. For God's sake, it was just sex! You didn't have to act like such a priss._"

He frowned. This was not going the way he expected. "Fine. I... overreacted. But I was not a priss!"

"_You won't even say we had sex, Neji. That's pretty prissy._"

He sighed exasperatingly. If he wanted to salvage this friendship he was going to have to sacrifice his pride. "Alright, I'll give you that one, too."

"_Good. At least you're being honest with yourself now._" He could practically see the smug smirk shining through her words and he laughed, despite the fact that his pride was pretty injured.

"So, when are you coming home?" he said to make conversation. Or, at least, that's what he was aiming for; secretly he really just wanted to know when she was going to be back.

"_Home?_" she responded, confusion evident in her voice.

"Yeah," Neji said back, leaning forward from his relaxed position. Wasn't she coming back? "You know, back to Japan."

There was an awkward silence from her end. "_Neji..._" she started, the guilty tone already quite clear in her voice, "_I'm not coming back. America is my home now._"

The older Hyuuga was quiet while his mind processed what Tenten had just told him. "What do you mean?"

"_I mean I'm not coming back to Japan. There's nothing for me there anymore, Neji. There are endless opportunities here. I have a _job_ here and a _life. _In Japan I was a struggling student with 'promise' and 'drive'. Here, I'm a working woman with a comfortable salary and an exciting life. I _like _it here, Neji._"

Again, he was quiet as he registered what she had told him. It was difficult to believe that Tenten didn't want to come home. She _belonged _here, didn't she?

_'_No,' he thought to himself, 'she doesn't.' Truth was, Tenten was destined for greater things. So was Neji, of course, but he had his uncle's company to head and that was his "great thing." He didn't need to leave Japan for his success but Tenten... Tenten needed to get out. And she had. So why was he trying so hard to hold her back?

It dawned on him, and before he could stop himself he blurted out his realization, "I love you."

"_Excuse me?_"

He gulped, not really wanting to repeat his proclamation. "I love you."

She laughed, but not cruelly. "_Oh, Neji..._" She sighed. "_No, you don't. You're just afraid of losing me. But don't worry about it, 'kay? You're going to be head of Hiashi's company soon, and I'm sure you'll have to make loads of trips to the U.S.A. You can visit me then!_"

"No, Tenten, I really do love-"

"_Neji,_" she cut him off, a slight edge to her usual friendly voice, "_please, just stop. You don't love me – or, you do but not in the way you mean. You understand?_"

He didn't say anything.

She sighed again, this time sounding tired. "_Look, I have to go to work but let's talk again soon, okay?_"

"Alright."

"_Great. Talk to you later, Neji._"

After hearing the dull '_click' _of Tenten hanging up, Neji sat sullenly staring at the receiver in his hand. What had just happened? He'd confessed his love to his best friend since his childhood and she'd _laughed_. Even worse, she'd then proceeded to tell him why he didn't love her. His head suddenly felt too heavy for his neck to hold up and chucked the phone vaguely at the holder. He missed but didn't have the effort to put it in it's proper place.

Trudging over to his bed, he collapsed on it. He stared dismally up at his bare white ceiling while trying to evaluate exactly what he had experienced with the phone call. A wave of different emotions washed over him that he tried desperately to ignore but ended up feeling anyway.

He sulked for another hour before sitting up wearily. He felt completely drained but alert at the same time. The range of emotions that had flooded him over the past hour were not something that he ever wanted to have to do again, but this emotion he was feeling now was by far the worst. He just felt defeated and sad. Defeated because he hadn't tried hard enough to get Tenten back. Sad because, well, he was too late. Eighteen years to accept these feelings and he chose now, when his love was on the other side of the world, to come to terms with them? Smooth, Neji. Real smooth.

Tiredly, Neji dragged himself to his desk and took out a pen and paper. He'd read somewhere that if you wrote a person's name on a piece of paper, put it under your pillow, then went to sleep, you'd dream of them. Neji followed these steps, filling an entire sheet of lined paper with Tenten's name, over and over again in his neat block writing. He slipped it under his pillow and lay down on his bed, prepared to dream of nothing but Tenten.

-Fin.-

**Authoress' Note: Oh my god, I need to get better at ending these things. Seriously, months of not writing anything and this is what I give you? Guh. **

**Well, it's been a while. To any of you Stay Awake readers, I'm trying, really, but the inspiration is lacking. Hopefully I'll have an epiphany and come up with something interesting to happen. Fingers crossed!**

**So, I'm quite aware that this is not as good as I would have liked it to be but I honestly didn't know how to end it. At the same time, I really didn't want to give up on it so the result was a kind of mediocre ending to an average one-shot. I hope you guys enjoyed it, nonetheless, and reviews/favourites/alerts are – and always will be – appreciated! **


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